Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Beliefs

Some people truly believe that they are saved and that they will go to heaven when they die, some believe that they are not awakened and that they have to do something about it, some believe that selfishness and competitiveness is in our biology and that we should encourage such behavior. Some believe that they are stupid, some believe that they are ugly and some believe that the skin color of other people is important.

What are we, really, without our beliefs about the world and ourselves? Is it possible to live without beliefs? I don't think so.

Most of our beliefs are not our own. We have mindlessly adopted them from our family and friends, from books and from our education. Our family and friends have in turn adopted their beliefs from others.

Sometimes we hold on strongly to beliefs that we don’t like; sometimes we hold on strongly to conflicting beliefs and sometimes we lie and say that we believe in something but secretly we believe something else.

Mostly we are not aware of what we believe. I think that it is very important to find out everything we can about our beliefs and then we should question them.

Moreover, we should question all beliefs, not only our own, because other people try all they can to force their beliefs down our throat. Sometimes they use cunning tricks, like mothers who coax a stubborn baby to eat another spoon of mashed banana. The advertising industry and the political campaign makers knows all about this. Beliefs should not be ignored. They affect our lives to an enormous extent.

Well, some beliefs are pretty harmless, I suppose, if you believe in UFO’s or astrology for example. Other beliefs are more important and some beliefs extremely important. Some people have to kill themselves because they believe that their life has no meaning and some people have to kill others because they believe that they have to kill infidels.

3 comments:

Therefore, if all "belief systems" do not collapse we will kill each other and the planet.

You say:"What are we, really, without our beliefs about the world and ourselves? Is it possible to live without beliefs? I don’t think so."

1. Do you really believe this?

2. Without our "beliefs" about the world and everything in it "everything" would be fresh. Are not all beliefs untrue? Give me one example of a belief that is true to Life? Without beliefs we function in a field of Love. Because we See the truth of who we are. Sure, a starting point is to question your own beliefs. But telling another person to "stop believing in something" won't work. Each person has to recognize their own beliefs for what they are, false.

Haven't you been having the same arguments over and over for years? Doesn't one side claim that they know that you are wrong. And vice versa? Why do we think we know what is best for others but, of course, others never know what is best for us? Isn't that because we each hold beliefs about people? When beliefs are gone it is pleasant to be with people. Feelings no longer get hurt. It feels good to no longer be criticized or given advice. People believe they know more about your situation than you do!!

It is so clear, that beliefs are the culprits that keep us from Seeing Life as the heaven it IS.Without the inner landscape changing, the outer cannot.

There is an age-old imagination that there exists a miraculous substance that enlightens the universe, which is exemplified in the alchemists’ idea of the philosophers’ stone. This imagination does not come from the personal unconscious, but is transpersonal in origin, as it arises out of the collective unconscious of humanity itself. This imagination has a numinous, archetypal quality to it, which is to say it is an expression of something beyond ourselves. This imagination of a substance which liberates the universe is a symbolic out-picturing of a transformative potential that exists within all of us and which is the goal of the alchemical opus. Our imagination, through symbols such as the philosophers’ stone, is revealing something to us of great significance.